This thesis takes its place in the lineage of research on resilience among adults and particularly teachers. The aim is to better understand the lived experience of the persons identified as resilient. The concept of resilience lends itself well to the individual’s issues with stress at work and the attempt to find what succeeds in helping teachers remain on the job versus what does not succeed, leaving the teachers helpless. However, in terms of psychological well-being, questions and doubts remain because resilience could be a surface social adaptation where the interior aspect of the individual is not sufficiently considered. This results in persons who are resilient but in poor psychological health.
On this last point, self-determined motivation and the satisfaction of the three basic needs which it underlies are concepts which receive strong support in the attempt to explain psychological health. Moreover, the description of resilient persons suggests characteristics of the order of self-determined motivation. This motivation will serve as a pivot allowing us to propose that, because of it, resilience should be accompanied by an adequate psychological health. It will be linked with the internal adaptation of resilience which could be seen in terms of inter- and intrapersonal resources. In fact, we propose the hypothesis of a mediation of the motivations and of the three basic needs in the relation between resilience and psychological health. We also propose that there are distinct profiles of resilient persons in regard to the variables of psychological health and that, on this basis, differences in motivation and in the satisfaction of the basic needs can be observed among the defined groups.
Analyses of mediation and the creation of clusters among teachers from large school commissions in the Montreal and Saguenay regions (N = 534) show partial mediations of the autonomous motivations and of the three basic needs. Distinct profiles as well as differences in motivation and in the satisfaction of the basic needs can be identified among the groups. The persons who are resilient at work are not all equal. The autonomous motivations are important in the process of resilience, as is the satisfaction of the basic needs. The differences in intrapersonal resources confirm the importance of taking into account the interior life of the resilient person. Recommendations are proposed at the end of this study to utilize certain levers in order to promote the resources of resilience for teachers.